For a short time after the SpaceX starship SN10 landed, it appeared that the prototype emerged unscathed from its test flight. The vehicle exploded in its landing area about a minute later, creating enormous hell as its predecessors did. Now, Elon Musk has revealed what went wrong in the responses sent to Twitter followers. The SpaceX boss said the SN10 engine was under low thrust, probably due to “partial helium ingestion of [the] fuel tank “and that the impact crushed the rocket’s legs and part of its skirt. SpaceX is now working on several fixes for the problem so that it no longer affects the successor to the SN10, the SN11.
The SN10 engine had a low thrust due (probably) to the partial intake of helium from the fuel collection tank. Impact of 10m / s of crushed legs and part of the skirt. Several working fixes for SN11.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2021
Chris Bergin of NASA Spaceflight tweeted that the problem is “complicated”, since helium intake was caused by the pressurization system added to the CH4 tank to avoid what caused the SN8 spacecraft to explode. Musk said this was a “fair point” and approved the change because it looked good at the time.
Fair point. If autogenous pressurization had been used, the CH4 bubbles would probably have reverted to the liquid.
The helium in the header was used to prevent the collapse of the expansion volume due to the splash, which happened on the previous flight. My fault for approving. It looked good at the time.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2021
SpaceX’s Starship is a heavy cargo launch vehicle that is being developed to transport cargo and human passengers into Earth orbit and beyond. The SN10 explosion will not slow down the company’s testing efforts – in fact, it recently implemented the SN11 prototype at its Boca Chica facility to begin preparing for its fourth high-altitude test launch.